


The Wolf in Cheap Clothing

by Blue_Mistfall



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Adoption, child!Jack, werewolf!mark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 09:08:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18753310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Mistfall/pseuds/Blue_Mistfall
Summary: Jack is a child adopted by a werewolf named Mark. He's used to his guardian's furry problem. But life's no fun without a good scare, so Mark's annoying little brother Anti is in to prove it.Inspired particularly by this: http://fav.me/daral12





	The Wolf in Cheap Clothing

   Family disgrace. That was the one and only expression that was firmly stuck to Mark. Who could’ve thought?.. No, they did not mind living among those who had no idea. No, they did not object to communicating with them as with equals (although some of the elders still had a grudge against them). No, they were not xenophobes. Not at all. The reason was envy. And disgust. And another one was about to join them.

 ---

   “Hey!”

   A short stern shout distracted both Officer Jones and the trio of scorchers (and this was just the first reason for them to be taken in). The sub-street was narrow and poorly-lit, and the day was rainy as well, so that the caller was spotted only when Jones pointed his flashlight at him. It was a lad, quite young, and obviously stuck in his childhood: his hair was dyed in a pepper red color on its top and stuck to the side of his face, while the rest of it was jet-black. Moreover, he seemed to be a hybrid: brown eyes with Asian shape and thin face lines together with sporty figure and average – not short – height were a weird combination.

   “I am serious,” the lad continued. “You have no idea who they are, and you are not to. Get away from here as soon as you can.”

   “Listen up, allow the police to finish it up,” Jones stated.

   “You will not,” the lad objected. The three who had driven around at insane speed froze, their eyes fixed on him. The next phrase was addressed to them. “Whatever you have found, you’d better given it to me… What? Is it WHOever?”

   “Get lost. It’s none of your business,” one of the scorchers snapped, his hand sneakily diving into his pocket.

   And then several things happened at once.

   The lad was gone, replaced with a giant furry creature – an enormous dog with black fur except for one scarlet stripe on its head, ears sticking up and bare fangs in a snarl. The next moment it covered the distance between itself and the closest garbage container with one giant leap and opened it with a short kick. However, the scorchers did not stand still: three short knives pierced into the plastic wall of the container exactly where the creature’s right back paw was a blink ago. Three more. Three more.

   The predator hissed – one of the knives scratched its back, luckily not directly. Having caught a moment when the scorchers were distracted by searching for more weapons and Jones – by calling for back up, it dove into the container, fished something wriggling out of it and darted away so speedily that even those three scorchers wouldn’t have caught up with him.

 ---

   If anyone had looked out of the window three miles farther from the accident, he or she would’ve seen the strangest sight: a huge black animal with something bright in its teeth dashing around the corner of abandoned building area and never returning.

   “Safety first,” Mark muttered when the sensation of shifting back into human form was gone for good, and only then gazed at the little squirming being in his arms. It was a baby boy, whose heart was about to rip out of him – he was so scared that didn’t even weep anymore, only wheezing. Poor child, he must’ve caught a cold as well… Mark growled. Barbarians. There still were ones who believed in rituals with human blood which could hypothetically prevent the birth of a family disgrace like himself. Therefore, the child must’ve been kidnapped just for that. The scheme seemed realistic: stealing a baby, scorching away, then hurriedly hiding him in a garbage container after the police arrival. Just great.

   Mark half-unzipped his hoodie and placed the child into the space between the garment and himself, hoping that it would make him warmer, for the boy’s clothing consisted of a green onesie, despite the weather. Obviously.

   “Shhh,” Mark hushed, rubbing the boy’s face clean with his free hand. “Shhhh. Don’t worry, kiddo, I’m not going to hurt you. Those degenerates are far away.”

   The boy sniffed and curled up against Mark, one chubby fist clenching the fold of his shirt.

   “There we go. Let’s go home, I’ll search for your parents. I hope you don’t mind.”

   The boy fell asleep at about halfway: Mark understood it by the moist patch of drool forming on his front. And the wound on the back was beginning to pulse with pain. No matter, just some more steps… dozens of them, actually. Okay. Okay. The kid’s alright, that’s main, and as about that transformation – no one would ever believe. Most people preferred to object to things they didn’t know.

   A loud click from the lock woke the child up, but this time he did not weep, just blinked at his savior and softly babbled.

   “Here it is. My home sweet home, little buddy.” Mark placed the child onto the couch, took his hoodie off and scooped the boy up once again. “Now please don’t cry. I have to do it first of all. ANTI!!!”

   Thumping of four limbs against the floor followed, its source coming to sight in some seconds. Strictly saying, Anti, whose real name was Antonio, was one of the reasons due to which Mark was considered to be a ‘family disgrace’. He was Mark’s brother. It was a peculiar story. His parents originally were to have four children, but it ended up in two. Two twin pairs, one child from each surviving. Due to some odd laws of lycanthrope nature, if a couple was to have twins, one of them would 75% be advanced, and the other would be misshapen. In his pair, Mark was ‘advanced’. This provided him exceptional self-control while in lupine form (required at full moon nights), and the ability to shape-shift whenever he wanted as well with keeping clothes. They were sort of hidden under the fur. Nothing more. And Anti was the misshapen one from the younger twin pair. He was some kind of a feral person – refused to walk on two feet, often chewed and nibbled on inedible items and hardly ever talked on his own. And his appearance suggested it as well. Although Anti did possess a special talent – he could shape-shift into any animal, but he couldn’t stay like that for long. Half an hour was his record. However, Mark had chosen to take care of him – blood bonds were stronger than chains. And he didn’t want their parents to suffer.

   Anti was sitting in a crouch on the floor, knees sticking to the sides and leaning on his fists, purple-haired head cocked to the side in curiosity.

   “Listen up, Anti! I’ve found this child at the street, several barbarians wanted to use him as a fuel for their rituals. Quite certain this was so,” Mark began.

   “Yuck!” Anti responded, lolling his tongue out.

   “So now I’m going to take care of the child until his parents are found. And if you even dare to lay a finger on him, I’ll tear you to pieces and sell via Internet. Got it?”

   “Great.”

   “Watch him here while I’ll go get him some food. And be good.”

   The kitchen door closed behind Mark, and Anti immediately blew raspberries to it. He knew it very well that nobody else apart from this punk would even mind him, but sometimes it was such pain in the neck! The baby turned his head full of light brown hair there and here, then his lower lip stuck out and wobbled. But at least he didn’t get fussy… Your Internet is going to be useless, Anti angrily thought and began mercilessly smelling the child all over – from head to toes. Interesting. Residual smells were there to be, but it was an almost unbearable mixture together with baby smell. Anti sneezed and blew his nose, which the boy found incredibly funny. At least he was not going to scream: Anti’s sensitive ears wouldn’t bear it. Hmm… Blood, burnt rubber, garbage and dirt smells mainly. A droplet of other humans’ smells. Then adrenaline. Much adrenaline… Anti flopped onto the floor. Clear as day.

   “Wow, how sweet of you,” Mark pointed out, returning from the kitchen. “You even managed to make the kid laugh… Didn’t expect this from you, bro.”

   Anti was flattered, though he didn’t show it. If Mark called him ‘bro’, this meant one out of two: either he was in a very very very very great mood or Anti at last managed to do something fine. But that was not the right time to choose.

   Having wrapped the child into a checkered blanket, Mark sat into the armchair and gave him the baby bottle full of warmed up milk, and the boy accepted it with a happy gurgle. I wonder how I still haven’t thrown it away, Mark thought to himself and recalled times when he was younger. Anti had been even more of a pest then, especially when it had been about feeding. Apart from everything else, he permanently had exceptionally sharp teeth and claws (ever since they had grown), which meant risk of getting one’s finger (if not more) bitten off every time.

   “Murder,” Anti informed, crouching on the floor again.

   “What? What do you mean – murder?”

   Anti nodded at the child who was thoughtfully sucking on the bottle.

   “Whirrrrrrr,” he droned, mimicking turning the steering wheel. “Crash! Smells.”

   Mark knew one thing for sure: if Anti was into smells, he was never wrong. Smells and their meanings were his cup of tea.

   “Wait until I check the data,” he replied in colorless voice.

 ---

   “Oh my, I wonder where he went,” Mark smirked to himself when the chubby figurine in a tiny, but still oversized hoodie was gone under the table. Then short fingers latched on his trouser-sleeve.

   “Rawr.” Jack beamed at him from below. “Rawr!”

   Okay, I hope he would understand this one day, Mark reminded himself. That fateful day he had found out that the child’s parents had indeed been killed in a car crash, which had supposedly been caused by those three scorchers. Moreover, the boy had been presumed dead as well, although only two bodies had been found. Therefore, Mark had thought it would be the best decision to take care of the boy. He had managed to find out about the child’s name, which was Sean, but still preferred to call him Jack just because of seemed conspiracy. Jack of all trades, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack sat on a candlestick…

   “Dada?” Jack stopped tugging at Mark’s trouser-sleeve and sat on the floor.

   “N-no, I-I’m not Daddy, I’m Mark,” he hurriedly corrected, having woken up from his daydream.

   “Mawk? Rawwwwwwr, Mawk!”

   Mark scooped Jack up and placed him on his lap:

   “I’ve told you, Jack, that you’re not like me. Alas, it is so… You’re a human, and I’m a lycanthrope. Or a half-animagus, hahahah.”

   “Why?”

   “You can’t learn to turn into an animal. It’s not a choice, you’re either born with it or you’re not. Anti didn’t choose to be what he is.”

   “Awwww.” Jack curled up in a little ball. Of course, he still does not fully understand what this is like, Mark thought. This is why he’s upset.

   “Don’t worry, Jack. Humans are awesome. They cannot turn into animals, but they can do lots of other things.”

   “What?” Jack asked, blinking at Mark.

   “You mean what they can do? Fine! I’ll show you!”

   Mark jumped up, tossed Jack upwards and caught him, the child’s shrieks of laughter loud enough to be heard from the street.

 ---

   “Want! Want! Want! Want! Want! Want! WAAAAAAAANT!!!”

   Mark knew it well that calming Anti down at such moments was equal to suicide, therefore he caught a moment when the purple-head stopped to catch his breath and called out:

   “I’ve told you a thousandth time, Anti: first Jack should come home from school, and then you can accompany him. As we have already done.”

   Anti groaned in frustration. For him, nothing was worse than waiting in this world, especially when the costume of sabretooth tiger was already waiting for him in the wardrobe. It was one of the rare days – or nights – when he was allowed to come out on legal basis. Scaring humans off was no great deal: there had been plenty of cases when misshapen twins or daredevils caused chaos leading to search for oddities… or even worse. In any case, Mark didn’t want it to take place once again, this is why Anti came out of the house only when they firmly knew no one suspicious was around. Or at All Hallows’ Eve. This was the most lawful ‘coming out’ ever, when a lad walking on all fours, with fangs and scars would never cause any extra thoughts.

   “There we go.” Mark fixed the final stitch and clicked his tongue. But hardly had he glanced at the clock to count down how much time the process had taken when the key clicked in the lock, and the pitter-patter of small feet echoed in the corridor. Of course, Jack had been impatient all day long at school. Exactly like Anti. Mark even thought they were alike in some way: extremely energetic, and if they found something that made them interested, they would never let it go until studying it completely. Mark had to hand it to Anti for never laying a finger on the boy. It would be the best to express it this way: Anti was angry, but not evil. Not at all, no sir, nowhere, nowhen.

   “Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark!” Jack chanted, bouncing with impatience. “Trick-or-treating! Trick-or-treating!”

   “First of all, hi,” Mark replied, hugging the eager five-year-old.

   “Hiiiiii,” Jack parroted (he managed to continue bouncing even when being in Marks’ arms).

   “I bet you were not the only one impatient for the evening, huh?”

   “Nope! Everyone’s waiting!..”

   The living proof to Jack’s statement was found in two seconds: Anti was about to explode, unable to wait for longer. Both Mark and Jack burst into laughter: his fang-showing grin gained the largest amount of affection it possibly could.

   “Imma superhero!” Jack squeaked, having spotted the black garment with neon green stripes on the chair’s back.

   “Yes, Jack, you are. But first have your dinner, I don’t want you to suffer from stomachache.”

   After reluctantly finishing his bowl of cheese soup, Jack scampered to Mark’s room. during this time Anti prepared for his part: in these well-worn pants with ‘long-haired’ patches sewn there and here, extremely furry vest over a thin jumper and old fluffy cap with pointy ears (which hid his purple hair) he was a proper copy of a predator from scary stories. Now it was only about make-up, and Mark decided to use the remaining hours in a proper way.

   “Now you’re a proper savage feline. All we need is the expression of rage,” Mark noticed, having drawn the final line on Anti’s face. Anti momentarily pulled up such scary face that Jack squeaked with horror, having glanced into the room. “Your turn, Jack. First off, as I promised, let’s take care of your hair.”

   “I’m gonna have cool hair like you!” Jack exclaimed. He could hardly control himself while Mark was applying the temporal hair dye to the top of his head. Then something else occurred to the boy. “But Mark, you no have your cool hair now. Why?”

   It was the truth: Mark’s puffy hair was chin-length now, but without a streak of extra colors in it. And there was a reason:

   “Jack, have you forgotten what night it is going to be?”

   Jack nibbled on his forefinger, realizing the truth. For him, it was no big deal at all, but he understood it very clearly what could take place if anybody else knew. Some kids at his class were bullied just because they were pudgy, or too tall, or clumsy. What would everyone say if they knew about Mark?..

   “There. I always keep my hair after I shape-shift. No one is to recognize me.”

   “Okay, Mark…” Maybe being a werewolf wasn’t so cool after all. But Jack’s sad thoughts flew out of the window when he saw the result of hair procedures: top of his head turned lime green, just like those neon stripes on the costume he was about to wear.

   “Well?” Mark asked, hiding a smile.

   “Wheeeeee!” Jack clapped his hands in delight. “But Mark, I wanna you be there too.”

   “Don’t worry, kiddo. I’ll be there. I promise.”

   Jack’s ‘balloon of happiness’ that grew inside him began deflating – slowly but surely. He was a big boy for now, and big boys go from school and trick-or-treat with their friends. But at the same time it was unfair that growing up took so much joy away. And that this silly round moon grabbed it all away from under Mark’s nose! However, Mark had another opinion:

   “Go have fun with your pals, Jack. No one will ever know. Except for you, kiddo, except for you.”

 ---

   Anti dashed out of the house as if his behind was burning. This time he did it as a human – using his legs. However, as soon as he reached the closest bushes, he stood on all fours and ran on like that. Jack chuckled to himself. If Anti was following him – and this was clear due to permanent quiet rustles and breaths heard from behind – he could not be worried at all.

   The fun began before Jack could’ve closed the back door behind him.

   “What’s up, you guy?”

   “Toppa the morning to ya!” Jack responded. The Edge Gang members – all three of them – laughed and exchanged high-fives with him. Tonight they were dressed like Ghostbusters, which was not surprising. Even out of school (where they were to wear uniform) they tended to wear matching logo tees despite being not the same at all: short scrawny Matt, his long-armed and long-legged brother J-Fred and sporty swarthy Bryan were that kind of guys who would never be suspected even to be seen together.

   “The harvest’s gonna be rich,” Matt informed, shaking his candy bag as a proof. Judging by their satisfied expressions, they have already begun their bonbon raid. “Wait, Jack, who are you tonight?”

   “Imma SepticEye!” Jack proclaimed, standing akimbo: the neon green stripes on his black outfit created a stunning effect in dusk, reflecting the remaining light. The same was with glasses worn instead of mask: their frame was black, but the lenses were covered with green mirroring dust so that they reflected the light as well. SepticEye was the superhero name he and Mark thought of. At first Jack had wanted to be the Spider-Man, but Mark had convinced him that being a unique superhero would be much cooler.

   “Okay, SepticEye, wanna join us?” J-Fred offered. “Can’t believe your dad already allows you to trick-or-treat on your own on Halloween!”

   “Safety second,” Bryan interfered. “Fun first.”

   Wish you knew I’m never alone, Jack thought to himself, but said a different thing:

   “Three, two, one, CANDIES!”

   The ‘green Edge Gang’, as J-Fred called it, did not stay alone for a long time. Soon it grew up to seven members, but that was the moment when it threatened to turn into a war – it came like a bolt from the blue. Jack was happily munching on his almond chocolate when an expressly lazy voice reached his ears:

   “Why do I have a feeling that you guys are gonna throw me under the bus?”

   Oh noes. Oh noes. Not that one! Beyond that doubt, Felix was the freakiest and the most posh kid of the neighborhood, obsessed with being ‘a king of all odds’, which was proved once again tonight. Even not the most fashion-experienced ones would tell that he must’ve gotten dressed in the dark, for these clothes (pinstriped pants tucked in knee-high boots together with a pirate-styled coat and something extremely bright underneath it) didn’t even match in colors, so it could physically hurt the eyes, if it was not for twilight softening the sight. Well, if there was something which could place Felix ahead of most ones present, it was his age (Jack was the youngest of everyone present, while he was the oldest). And maybe the ability to practically bleed sugar and syrup.

   “What, are you a tropical parrot tonight?” Gunner the Runner, the good mate of Edge Gang, asked.

   “Not at all, Gang-Bang. I’m Zaphod Beeblebrox,” Felix replied, hands in pockets. “The President of the Galaxy, haven’t you heard? Was lucky enough to get his appearance. And those are Trillian and Marvin the Paranoid Android.”

   The latest-mentioned ones were his ‘best friend and girl, but not a girlfriend’ named Marzia and the oddball of the neighborhood, who did not give up his habit of face-hiding even now. The only word to identify him was Cry – maybe because of his manner of laughing: it sounded somehow similar to muffled sobs. Felix stated that Cry stuck with him because ‘unpopular kids always follow the popular ones’, but even Jack knew the truth. Cry loved telling creepy tales. And this was just the night to tell some, if there was a chance. It promised there was.

   “Sup? Have you forgotten where we were going?” he asked in a hissing whisper.

   “Ooh, Fe, you’ve got yourself a truth-teller?” Nate, who was dressed as Bendy from Bendy and the Ink Machine, squinted. “Come on, he won’t dare to shut ya up.”

   “Of course he won’t,” Cry went on blankly. “They say each year one of the houses around here gets haunted. Every time it’s different one. But if anyone manages to meet the spirits that visit it, he or she gets to see something incredible.”

   “Whoa, you’ve never told it to me!” Felix exclaimed, hands on cheeks in fake horror. “I thought I knew all of your tales!”

   “Someone’s got imagination here, unlike a certain screamer,” Marzia teased.

   “It is said that there should be five in-dee-cators if anyone wants to find that house and meet the souls,” Cry went on. “Something triple, something green, something musical, something bright and something eerie. We have ‘em?”

   “What are you? Nuts?” Felix snapped. But before he could’ve put in something particularly self-appreciating, Bryan took over the initiative:

   “We’ve got all five! Look, Matt, J-Fred and I are something triple. There are three of us, huh?”

   “Jack is somebody green,” Marzia caught up, smirking at her pal who pursed his lips. “Don’t worry, Felix, you’re somebody bright.”

   “And Nate’s musical,” Jack put in. He had heard Nate singing, and Mark had too – the latter one had had to take his dropped jaw from the ground every time.

   “Eerie’s easy as Peeeeeeewdiepie.” This was said by Matt, perhaps to make Felix mad: he hated it when someone else used this mock name apart from himself. “So, where to begin?”

   A rustle in the bushes made everyone present start. Jack began nervously glancing around, but then spotted a torn-off tuft of purple hair hanging on the closest bush, and it dawned on him. Having decided not to spoil all the fun, he suppressed a snicker, carefully picked the hair from the bush and showed it to everyone present:

   “Look what’s here.”

   “You sure it’s not yours?” Felix snarled and received an elbow from Marzia together with a comment:

   “Seems like this outfit made you colorblind.”

   The Edge Gang quickly decided to act and found out that there was a small pile of sweets under the bush on which the purple hair had hung. Moreover, new pieces of candy appeared on the pavement momentarily, as if someone placed them there while no one was watching. Jack struggled really hard to hide his joy, for it seemed to him that his ribs were going to crack and release the laughter.

   The next discovery was not as satisfying.

   “Wait, those are pebbles.” Ken nervously tugged on the ‘ears’ of his knitted cap which responded a bear’s head (even now he wasn’t going to give his trademark cap up) after having unwrapped one of the ‘sweets’. “This one too.”

   “Those who never risk never taste anything worthy,” Cry droned.

   Every single ‘candy’ on the way appeared to be a pebble wrapped in colorful paper. Then where did the candies go? – Jack thought. Eaten by a certain sharp-toothed and purple-haired person? Perhaps. Jack and Anti both had a sweet tooth for all kinds of candies, cookies, pies, et cetera.

   The track led to the end of the street, where the kids found out they were not the only ones intrigued with pebbles in disguise and odd rustling in the bushes that accompanied them along the way. Two boys – one pudgy, the other taller and thinner – and a petite girl, dressed as Sans, Papyrus and Frisk from Undertale correspondingly, were lurking around the lawn which hadn’t been mowed for a long time.

   “This track was left for us, you know!” Felix shot out immediately.

   “Shoo, you blathering blatherskite,” Bryan interfered. “Hi Spooks, how’s tricks?”

   “We were trick-or-treating and all, and then Jonny found these in his bag.” Caleb rolled several small rocks over his palm clad in a glove with skeletal hand pattern. “Someone tossed them there, and I have no idea how.”

   “And then we found a path marked with them,” Adriana added. “It led us here. The door’s open, but…”

   “Something there,” Jonny finished, pointing at the door with his thumb. “It won’t let us in.”

   “You sure that’s a good idea, Jonny?” Caleb blanched.

   “It’s silly to give up. We’re gonna have an adventure, I think,” Marzia interfered. “Aren’t we, President of the Galaxy?”

   While Felix was attempting to cope with the expression of fear attempting to get out, Cry walked up to the doors of the farthest house at the street and knocked on its doors:

   “Sup?”

   A half-hiss, half-growl was the reply. Jack covered his mouth with both hands, as if horror-struck, but in reality it was a desperate try to hide an enormous smile. He definitely knew whose throat let this sound out and was not going to spoil the fun.

   “What is green?” The voice was forced, hoarse and choking due to lack of exercise. Or just to laziness? Jack didn’t know if Anti was lazy about speaking or simply didn’t care. Without further ado Cry pulled Jack by his sleeve:

   “He is.”

   “Hmmmmm… What is musical?”

   This question received multiple answers. Nate was the first to begin humming – first under his nose, then louder:

   “Boys and girls of every age, would you like to see something strange?..”

   “Come with us and you will see,” Caleb caught up.

   “In this town of Halloween,” Jonny joined.

   “Hm, hm… What is triple?”

   The singers went silent, and it was the Edge Ganger’s time to shine. This time the ‘voice’ was satisfied immediately:

   “What is bright?”

   “Youuuuuuu,” Ken and Nate droned slyly, pushing Felix to the door from behind. Jack could swear he heard a husky chuckle upon this sight.

   “What is eerie?”

   “Me,” Cry murmured.

   The doors creaked open, inviting the adventurers to enter. Okay, beginning meant ending, and it was too late to turn back, so the children reluctantly went in.

 ---

   Anti suddenly recalled the Alien movie – particularly the most famous chest-ripping moment, because that was exactly the sensation he was feeling now. Impatience. Sitting in this box was not scary, it was boring, but now, when his sensitive ears caught the voices, he was about to burst into a thousand tiny Antis. He massaged his throat, making sure he was not going to choke at the most responsible moment.

   “This one’s open.”

   Of course, girls are more watchful, Anti thought. Creak, then patting of several pairs of little feet over the floor, then tense beating of more than a dozen hearts… One, two, three, four, five…

   Anti slammed the box open, having emitted the most horrific sound he could – a combination of Shrek’s roar and screeching jumpscare. The kids yelled out in panic and fled from the room; judging by the sounds that followed, they scattered around the house. Anti collapsed onto his back, dangling his legs in the air and clutching his belly, but not making a sound: laughing out loud at the moment would’ve spoilt everything. Even Jack’s reaction was priceless, although he was familiar with Anti’s shenanigans for a long-long time.

 ---

   Jack slammed into something soft, warm and scratchy to the touch. It wasn’t possible to see what – or who – it was in this half-darkened space.

   “Who’s that?”

   “Who’re you?”

   “Jack?”

   “Caleb?”

   Both boys stared at each other, considering what had taken place a minute ago.

   “Wha-what in the world was that?..” Caleb breathed. Seems like the ‘jumpscare’ had awarded him with stuttering.

   Jack blinked. The reason for such reaction was obvious: he had absolutely no wish to spill the beans, but he had never had to think of explanations. Thank you, Anti, you’ve hardly ever shown yourself to anyone… But Caleb saved Jack from inventing a lame story by his own suggestion:

   “M-maybe the hosts have a pet tiger or else. C-crazy rich people have… Jack? Are you okay?”

   “Y-yes,” Jack mumbled, his mouth forming a crooked smile beside his will. Caleb arched his eyebrow in confusion – this was totally not the reaction he expected.

   “Phew, you didn’t turn mute… Let’s search for others, eh?”

   Scratching and growling sounds continued coming from behind the doors and from all holes, but this time they were much quieter. Personally for Jack, his own heart pounding in the ears was enough. After a brief search he and Caleb found Adriana and Nate in the kitchen under the sink and table correspondingly.

   “Next time don’t creep like that!” Nate exclaimed after being pulled out by his legs.

   “Sorry, didn’ want to scare you,” Jack shrugged.

   “Whew, whoever thought to put these on you was clever,” Adriana mentioned, nodding at the neon green stripes on Jack’s outfit. “Wait, where’s everybody?”

   “Over here!”

   The kids turned their heads up and saw J-Fred hanging on the giant dusty theater-type chandelier in the corridor, holding on it with both arms and legs. Nate snorted with laughter:

   “What? How… how did you climb up there?”

   “He bounced.” The chandelier rocked to the side, and Matt’s head popped from over its edge. “And I fell.”

   As if approving his words, the hook in the ceiling ripped out of it, like a carrot from the ground, and the chandelier smashed in the ground together with both brothers. Thank goodness, that did not hurt them, for they fell onto a pile of carpets. And Jack thought he knew who had put it there.

   “No bones broken,” J-Fred panted, crawling from under the chandelier remains. The drop-shaped ‘charms’ on it appeared to be plastic, so they did not break to smithereens, like the glass ones would’ve done. “Don’t look at me like that, I dunno how I got up there. Matthias fell from the stairs up… there,” he pointed upwards, “that’s what I saw.”

   The ones responsible for giving the kids a good fright were sensible as well: none of them got locked in a room. Gunner and Bryan hid themselves in the closet, having curled up in two little balls under old rags; Marzia was squeezed behind the large mirrored wardrobe; Ken was sitting in a corner under the stairs, and Cry pretended to be a hyperrealistic statue on the top of the railing. Jonny was the one who chose the tactics ‘the best defense is attacking’: as soon as the kids found his shelter (in a huge chest), he jumped out of it with a yelp of “Heeeeeeeeere’s Jonny!!!”, having made everyone back away.

   “Now we only lack the Big Z,” Cry announced in a tone of a radio news reporter. “We can’t go on without the President of the Galaxy.”

   Jack covered his mouth with both hands again: he understood that Cry was trying to provoke his pal to come out by himself. But to no avail. Even the growling sounds were gone for good, replaced by silence which was creepier than any heavy metal or suspicious sounds.

   The kids shared worried glances once again, reaching out to each other in order to check if none of them had turned to phantom or else.

   “Checked everywhere?” Ken finally dared to break the silence. “What about the locked rooms?”

   “No one touched them,” Adriana assured. “Look, if someone tried to open them, there would be footsteps. The floor’s so dusty that they would’ve been clean.”

   “Then where could he go? Could he just run out through the door or…” Bryan wanted to say ‘window’, but stopped himself from doing so: the windows had been shut for the whole time. The same was with the front and back doors.

   “Shush,” Caleb hushed. “We can hear him if it’s completely quiet. I think so.”

   The feet of everybody present went numb while they were listening to silence. But finally Jonny’s sharp-chinned face lit up, and he raised his forefinger, signaling that he heard a certain familiar sound. After straining his ears Jack heard it as well, and it was not Anti’s trick or else, for sure.

   “Hic!”

   “Loud and obnoxious. That’s him,” Marzia assured. “Jonny, Caleb, you have trained ears. Where did that come from?”

   For some more moments everyone was listening again, when there was another hiccup. Then one more. And one more.

   “Down.” Jonny pointed at the floor, indicating the direction. “He’s tots down.”

   “No-no-no-no-no-no! I’m not going to the cellar!” Matt exclaimed, showing doubled ‘talk to the hand’.

   “Dude, we gotta. Together it’s safer, remember?” J-Fred reminded.

   After a short bicker everybody finally led to the eventual destination. The cellar ladder was not creaky at all, but the silence was interrupted again by sounds of something soft being dragged over the floor. That’s not Anti, Jack thought to himself. Then who? All this time the ‘misshapen one’ had done his best to scare everyone out of their skins. Or is he saving the best for the finale?

   “Hic!”

   The cellar appeared to be lighted with old-fashioned gas lamps. Or were those stylized ones? Never mind, they gave just enough light not to bump into anything and to see colors of things.

   “Where?” Marzia mouthed. Nate pointed at the enormous grand piano in the farther end of the place, the cover of which was shut. “Oh god, do you really think he could get into there? It has lots of strings and all which would cut him in pieces…”

   However, when the cover was raised (due to literally everyone’s efforts), it appeared that the instrument lacked every single string, containing only deadly terrified Felix – even his lips turned white, and he wasn’t blinking.

   “Stop that fooling around, Fe, that’s no fun,” Gunner tutted, reproachfully gazing at him.

   “I’m not – hic! – fooling around!” Felix shot out, at last coming to himself and climbing out of the grand piano. “I-I-I’ve – hic! – seen them! Why me?! What is hap – hic! – pening?!”

   “Whom did you see?” Adriana asked.

   “T-t-them!”

   “He’s not bluffing…”

   For the first time during the evening Cry’s drone turned just a wee bit more emotional. And that was the indicator. The children slowly turned around to see that the way back was closed by five creatures. Five beings that looked like gigantic dogs. No, wolves. Real and true wolves with claws, fangs and everything in between. Now they were standing in a line, observing the children.

 ---

   The cold feeling of dread coated Jack’s heart. No. No no no no no no. Mark would never attack either him or anybody else, even as an animal. And Mark always stated that lycanthropes never and ever attacked anybody first, no talking about children. Don’t give it out, Jack. Don’t give it out. One of them just GOTTA be Mark, just GOTTA!

   Jack’s eyes darted from the first furry creature to the last. Why did Mark have to get rid of his cool hair?.. Recall what he told you, Jack. Even dimwitted Felix would’ve recognized him if he had his pepper hair! Think, Jack, think. The smallest one, whose fur was dark grey with a little hint of bluish, was out. Mark was larger. One down. The largest one, portly and short-furred, was not Mark as well, for sure. Two down. Next… The third wolf was more of a brown shade, with fur which was not straight, but a bit curly. No words, that’s not Mark. Three down. Two remaining ones, however, did not possess certain noticeable differences. Maybe if there was more light, their fur colors would differ more, but here… Think think think think think…

   All of a sudden Jack’s eyes sparkled: he realized that Mark knew about his confusion. The back paws of the creature closer to the right were unnaturally crooked - not to the sides, but to the back. Mark could perform this ‘foot thing’, as he called it, in human groove too. It had scared Jack every time when he was smaller, because he had imagined that Mark had been cut in half and sewed back together wrongly. Nobody else could do that. Naturally, no one would ever pay attention to paws, because heads and teeth were enough.

   Jack fearlessly headed to the wolf that stood to the right of him and raised his hand to pet its muzzle. The creature let out a short rumble, but then hid its fangs and nuzzled the boy.

   “Me right?” Jack mouthed, having received a tiny nod as an answer, and snuggled into the fluffy black fur.

   Bryan dropped both his jaw and candy bag. Marzia pressed herself against the wall. Nate stuffed his fist into his mouth. The rest just stood there in shock, observing the strange interaction.

   Mark softly pushed Jack aside with his front paw and snarled something highly moralistic to the rest of the wolves. The curly-furred one, almost ignoring him, approached to Matt (who shrunk even more – his legs did not obey, unable to carry him away from here with fear, as well as almost everyone else’s present), smelled him head to toe and gave him a playful lick on the face.

   Matt let out a strange sound – half-whimper, half-chuckle. And the curly-furred wolf already switched his attention to J-Fred and Bryan, as if checking if the Edge Gangers fitted each other. The smallest lycanthrope (for Jack has lost all the doubt about their nature yet), one with bluish fur, decided to check on Ken and was satisfied after smelling his bear cap.

   “Oh boy, they are nice,” Gunner mentioned, when the portly wolf checked on him and then turned to Jonny and Adriana. “I think if they wanted to eat us, we wouldn’t be here now.”

   “Really nice,” Cry approved, only to be interfered by Felix’s loud complaint:

   “HEEEEEEEYYYY, you sniffed them all over, and what about me?!”

   Mark’s teeth clicked right in front of Felix’s nose, which made the latter bite his tongue. Then Mark let out a short “grrrh”, as if laughing, placed his paw on the posh kid’s tow-topped head and ruffled his hair.

   “What, you’re high on helium again?” Nate teased: Felix’s face could’ve made the best HELP meme at the moment. “Don’ forget it was your idea!”

   A piercing howl prevented the possible fight: the Edge Gangers stopped fearing at all and began the ‘most convincing wolf’ competition, much to the lupine creature’s confusion.

   “No one’s ever gonna believe us!” Jonny yelped, ears stuffed with forefingers: his musical senses did not adore that at all.

 ---

   Jack sneezed and woke up. He was no longer surrounded by long black fur – instead, he found himself in a blanket cocoon, so that only his head was sticking out.

   “M-Mark?” he asked, wriggling out of the blanket. He could hardly remember the events which had taken place after that trip around the ‘house of horrors’. Returning home and falling asleep were the only clear points. It was still early: the digital clock on the bed-table showed 6:05, and it was Saturday. Nowhere to hurry, then.

   Another proof was right in front of Jack: Anti was curled up in a corner, sleeping like a particularly freaky baby. But where was Mark? Jack finally untangled himself, wrapped the blanket around his shoulders and toddled to the living room. There he is: already in human groove, slumped in a huge armchair, wearing his funny pajamas dotted with M letters and a dressing gown. And glasses. Forgot to take them off, Jack thought and began climbing up the armchair’s elbow to correct this, but before he could have reached the aim, Mark opened one eye and muttered:

   “Jack? Why aren’t you sleeping?”

   “Gwasses,” Jack babbled, pointing at them. Mark took them off and placed into the dressing gown’s pocket:

   “Come here, Jack. Come on. What’s bothering you?”

   “Huh?”

   “I see you’re worried. Very very worried. Worried sick. Tell me, Jack. What’s up? Did I scare you too much?” Mark placed Jack on his lap and caressed the boy’s still green hair.

   “N-nope. I w-was scared I could misfind you,” Jack confessed. “Those wolves… they were the man-wolves too? You didn’ tell me.”

   “You’re gonna be surprised, Jack. Those four are family disgraces, just like me.” Mark nodded at the photo standing on one of the counters: five youngsters, including himself, giving their widest smirks to the camera. Jack froze, not daring even to blink. He had seen those four pals of Mark’s so many times and couldn’t even suspect they were lycanthropes as well! “I’m sorry, Jack, but they asked me not to tell you until you’re old enough to understand. Now I see you’re able to keep secrets.”

   Gears in Jack’s head took a new turn. Only now he matched the images of four humans and four wolves and saw the similarities. Ethan was blue-haired, and he kept the bluish hair – or fur – shade in animal form (if Mark had only one lock of color on his head while being ‘fluffy’, Ethan had them all over). Bob was the tallest and the largest – obviously. Tyler was the only curly-pate of the group, this is why his lupine form had such funny fur. Wade?.. Jack wasn’t sure about him.

   “Mark?”

   “Hm?”

   “Why family dees-grays?”

   “Princesses are not supposed to be ugly, and lycanthropes are not to be fat. Or too small. Or be friends with a natural born family disgrace.”

   “You not disgrace.”

   “You think so, kiddo?”

   “Mm-hmm. Other lee-kan-tro-pees are very silly to fink you disgrace.”

   Mark didn’t know what he was thinking at the moment, but his mouth spread in a beam by itself.


End file.
